Motorbike

England and Wales have a somewhat arcane but interesting set of laws around what tracks are rideable by motorcycle. Some of them are nice simple lanes that could be ridden on any motorcycle by anyone. Others appear to be just a jumble of rocks that need a superstar to ride.

I must come back and write more about the laws but what interests me right now is being able to identify those rights of way and being able to navigate along them when I'm out for a ride.

I don't think I'm known for keeping quiet about my love of overland travel, especially by motorcycle. Jumping on my KTM and heading off in search of distant lands is what my life is about these days.

We are very lucky in the UK to have some great biking/adventure/travel related events take place in the Summer and I have been particularly lucky to attend a few of them so far.

Whilst I may have ridden a fair few miles on Hedy, my KTM 790 Adventure R, I only really started to get the setup right recently.

Over the last few weeks, I have been continually making small adjustments to the suspension and feeling the changes, deciding if that’s actually how I want the bike to feel and if it is helping me ride better, especially on dirt.

The confidence a good setup creates in my riding is huge - I’m now no longer fearful in sand and bashing through it faster and faster. And I’m now happy making (little) jumps whenever I can. And it’s FUN!!!

At the beginning of August, I did something I've been talking about for months – I bought a new motorbike that is actually built for the type of journeys I love to do.

Hedy, my fabulous new (to me) KTM 790 Adventure R, has already completed over 4000Km as we have travelled around – I already need new tyres – that must be a sign of approval??

Let's first be honest; this isn't yet a post COVID-19 world and it won't be for some time yet. However, in-person events are beginning to happen and we need to consider what that means, practically.

How do we maintain reasonable levels of safety for those people who attend? What do we do about those who simply cannot attend, either through concerns over their health or the inability to travel? I might not even be allowed into events in the USA at the moment as the Astra Zeneca vaccine I had isn't recognised there.

It's time to say farewell to Idris, my BMW S1000XR. In the five years since I bought it, we have made a pretty good job of living up to the "adventure" category this bike supposedly falls into in the BMW Motorrad line-up. We have travelled across dozens of countries in two, nearly (!) three, continents and ventured off-road once or twice in that time. 

“Would you like to come to my wedding?” I receive as a Slack message from a friend in the Drupal community.

“Sure! When is it? Where?”

“It’s in November, in Kota”

“Oh - wow - yeah, I’ll come if I can!”

At this point, it seemed like a good idea to look at a map - where on Earth is Kota????

For the last few years, I have made it a little tradition of mine to use the motorbike to get to as many DrupalCon events as possible, certainly all the European ones and I even had thoughts of how to do this for Minneapolis this year. 

Of course, 2020 came along and everything changed. Still, given DrupalCon is a "high intensity" time in Drupal Association staff's calendars, I knew spending a few days riding after DrupalCon Global 2020 was definitely a good idea.